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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
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Issue of 2007‒06‒23
six papers chosen by |
| By: | Jordi Brandts; María Fernanda Rivas |
| Abstract: | The existence of punishment opportunities has been shown to cause efficiency in public goods experiments to increase considerably. In this paper we ask whether punishment also has a downside in terms of process dissatisfaction. We conduct an experiment to study the conjecture that an environment with stronger punishment possibilities leads to higher material but lower subjective well-being. The more general motivation for our study stems from the notion that people??s subjective well-being may be affected by the institutional environment they find themselves in. Our findings show that harsher punishment possibilities lead to signficantly higher well-being, controlling for earnings and other relevant variables. People derive independent satisfaction from interacting under the protection of strong punishment possibilities. These results complement the evidence on the neural basis of altruistic punishment reported in de Quervain et al. (2004). |
| Keywords: | Public Goods, Experiments, Well-being, Punishment |
| JEL: | C92 D60 H40 |
| Date: | 2007–06–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aub:autbar:705.07&r=ltv |
| By: | Yoram Amiel; Frank A Cowell; Xavier Ramos |
| Abstract: | Starting from the axiomatisation of polarisation contained in Esteban and Ray (1994)and Chakravarty and Majumdar (2001) we investigate whether people's perceptionsof income polarisation is consistent with the key axioms. This is carried out using aquestionnaire-experimental approach that combines both paper questionnaires and onlineinteractive techniques. The responses suggest that important axioms which serveto differentiate polarisation from inequality - e.g. increased bipolarisation - as well asother distinctive features of polarisation, i.e. the non-monotonous behaviour attributedto polarisation, are not widely accepted. |
| Keywords: | polarisation, income distribution, inequality |
| JEL: | D63 |
| Date: | 2007–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:stidar:90&r=ltv |
| By: | Frank A Cowell; Maria-Pia Victoria-Feser |
| Date: | 2007–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:stidar:91&r=ltv |
| By: | David de la Croix; Omar Licandro |
| Abstract: | We propose a new theory of the demographic transition based on the evidence that body development during childhood is an important factor for life expectancy. The key and novel mechanism of the model is that parents face a tradeoff between the quantity of children and the childhood development spending they afford on each of them. It is in this sense that we refer to Wordsworth’s aphorism that “The (Father of) Child is the Father of Man.” This tradeoff makes life expectancy and fertility move in opposite direction. Along these lines, we propose a continuous time model where fertility, childhood development, longevity, education and income growth result all from individual decisions. The dynamics display the key features of the demographic transition, including the hump in population growth, and replicate the observed rise in educational attainments and life expectancy. Consistent with the empirical evidence, a distinctive implication of our theory is that childhood development leads the rise in education. |
| Keywords: | Life Expectancy, Body Height, Human Capital, Fertility, Mortality |
| JEL: | J11 I12 N30 I20 J24 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eui:euiwps:eco2007/05&r=ltv |
| By: | Holger Bonin (IZA); Ulf Rinne (IZA) |
| Abstract: | Final report on behalf of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Serbia and Montenegro |
| Date: | 2006–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izarrs:8&r=ltv |
| By: | Frenette, Marc; Coulombe, Simon |
| Abstract: | Young women have gained considerable ground on young men in terms of educational attainment in the 1990s. The objective of this study is to assess the role of rapidly rising educational attainment among young women in raising their relative position in the labour market. The findings suggest that the educational trends have not contributed towards a decline in the full-time employment gap. Nevertheless, they have contributed towards a decline in the gender earnings gap, especially in the 1990s. However, university-educated women have lost ground to university-educated men. This is likely due to the fact that men and women continued to choose traditional disciplines during the 1990s, but only male-dominated disciplines saw improvements in average earnings. |
| Keywords: | Education, training and learning, Society and community, Educational attainment, Outcomes of education, Women and gender |
| Date: | 2007–06–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp3e:2007301e&r=ltv |